E U R i d T h e E u r o p e a n R e g i s t r y o f I n t e r n e t D o m a i n N a m e s S u m m e r 2 0 0 8

Spotlight on EURid registrars 12

Perfect match:.eu and education

25 years of domain names

Finding a placein the sun with .eu

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The .eu domain not only enables businesses, organ-isations and residents to choose a pan-European Internet name for their websites and email addresses but also strengthens the European brand. A .eu domain tells the world you’re open for business across all of Europe. No wonder logistics and transportation companies have embraced .eu domain names for their corporate websites.

On page 4, for example, you can read about Box, a leading provider of express logistics and warehousing services in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway and Sweden, while on page 2 you can read about Terra-vision, an airport coach shuttle service that began offering service between Ciampino airport and Rome city centre in 2002 and now offers coach services at 12 airports across Europe.

Logistics and transportation companies embrace .eu for corporate websites

On the move with .eu

The .eu domain

turns two!

“It makes sense to use .eu,” says Tobias Åbonde, CEO of Box Sweden. Box is a leading provider of express and logistics services in five European countries and may expand in the future.

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The .eu domain recently celebrated its second anniversary. Over the past two hectic years .eu has become established as the domain for Europe by offering a single Internet identity for 490 million Europeans in 27 countries. Today, the .eu domain is among the top-ten largest globally, and .eu domain name registrations continue to grow.

In this newsletter you can see many examples of companies that have chosen to base their online presence on a .eu address. The logistics industry offers a good illustration of the value of using a .eu domain name to reach out to customers across Europe. Nordic-based Box, which you can read about on page 4, is just one example.

Woluwelaan 150, 1831 Diegem - BelgiumThe European Registry of Internet Domain Names

This newsletter was produced in June 2008 by EURid. Layout and production: Typeman Design If you would like extra copies or have questions, please send an email to newsletter@eurid.eu.

The appeal of .eu extends beyond the logistics industry, of course. As we explore on page 6, a .eu web address has proven a valuable asset for several higher education organisations working to attract both European and non-European students.

The open borders within the European Union itself – along with the growth in online shopping, marketing and advertising – has created enor-mous opportunities. More and more businesses are recognising these opportunities through the use of .eu domain names. That fact adds to the reasons for celebrating the .eu second anni-versary.

Marc Van Wesemael

From the Managing Director

“Terravision is proud of its distinctive European character and therefore chose a .eu domain to emphasise this as part of its corporate identity as a leader in the European low-cost travel market. The move to a .eu domain presented us with an extra channel to communicate our brand values and was an essential step forward for the company following its rapid expansion throughout Europe.”

The company is currently investing heavily in online communication, she says, and the adoption of a single .eu domain name is only the first step of a complete structural reform for the Terravision website.

Terravision is a fairly new company that came about to respond to a gap in the market place which appeared as a result of the low-cost airline boom in Europe. The company started by offering a shuttle service between Ciampino airport and Rome city centre in 2002 and has since expanded to offer airport shuttles from several airports around Europe.

“The .eu domain is dis- played on our fleet of coaches

and is featured in all advertising material and press releases. It is used internally for staff email addresses and has recently been chosen for our exciting new venture, www.terracafe.eu,” Ms Rajabali says.

“The .eu extension is definitely an option not to be underestimated, since the right URL is one of the key elements which guarantees the popularity of a site. The .eu also provides the user with an instantly recognisable indicator of site content. It is likely that portals and search engines will increasingly group contents on a European scale, and in this case .eu domains will most certainly be favoured.”

EURid launches an end-user extranetRecently EURid launched an end-user extranet giving domain name holders better service. If you want to change registrar you can, via the extranet, obtain an authorisation code to pre-confirm the change and speed up the transfer procedure. On the extranet you can also see the contact data EURid has for your domain name and, if you are a private individual, you can also select which parts of the contact data should be visible via the public WHOIS look-up service. See the EURid website for details.

Continued growth for .euDuring the first quarter of 2008, the total num-ber of .eu domain name registrations rose by 4.3 percent. Around 2500 new .eu domain names are registered every business day. Although the number decreased in April, due to the fact that a large proportion of the register- ed names were up for renewal, the increase between the end of the first quarter 2007 and 2008 was almost 9 percent. Germany main-tains the lead in the number of .eu names, with almost 900 000 .eu names registered.

The airport shuttle service company Terravision uses .euYakuta Rajabali, marketing director of Terravision London Ltd, says of their choice:

Did you know?The .eu domain is available to 490 million Europeans in 27 countries.

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.eu celebrates its 2nd birthday!

Over the span of two years .eu has become one of Europe’s largest top-level domains and can today count more than 2.7 million register-ed domain names. Approximately 2500 new domain names are registered each business day, as .eu becomes more widely used around Europe. The .eu top-level domain uniquely offers one common European identity on the Internet for 490 million Europeans in 27 different countries.

This makes .eu, at its second birthday, the fourth most popular top-level domain in Europe and the ninth worldwide.

Viviane Reding, the EU commissioner for Information Society and Media, commented: “The creation of a trustworthy environment with a distinct European identity is at the forefront of my vision for Europe’s inclusive Information Society. Early adopters of .eu understood its value and have grasped the opportunity to pro-mote their own pan-European outlook. It should now become the natural choice for everyone in Europe. The stronger Europe’s single market for telecommunications grows, the more we ought

to ensure that .eu becomes more visible, secure and affordable.”

In terms of total number of .eu registrations per country of origin, Germany continues to lead followed by the Netherlands, the United King-dom, France and Italy.

1999 The first discussion about a possible .eu domain starts within the European Council

May 2003 EURid is chosen by the European Commis-sion to be the registry in charge of the .eu top-level domain.

7th of April 2006 .eu registrations open to the public

April 2006 The number of .eu domain names reaches 1 million.

June 2006 The number of .eu domain names reaches 2 million.

April 2008 .eu celebrates its second birthday

The top-level domain .eu has grown out of its infancy to become a lively

toddler, and celebrated its second birthday in April

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Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media, says that .eu should become the natural choice for everyone in Europe.

Important steps for .eu

Registrations for .eu domains have been growing continuously following the boom in its first year. The biggest growth has been noted in some northern and eastern parts of the EU. On another happy note, worth celebrating, ap-proximately 80 percent of domain names have been renewed for their second year, showing that confidence in .eu is high.

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Like .eu, new MyQuickBox delivery service offers flexibility

yQuickBox delivery station looks some- thing like an oversized vending mach-ine such as the kind you might find at train stations and other public places.

Each metal unit, which is 252 cm high, 410 cm long and 140 cm deep, contains 76 individual compartments. Online purchases made from Box’s e-shopping partners early in the day should be delivered to a MyQuickBox delivery station by five o´clock in the afternoon, accord-ing to the company; later purchases should be available no later than nine o´clock the next morning. Customers receive a mobile phone text message with a retrieval code as soon as a package is available for pick up.

The new service was tested for one year with the cooperation of Komplett, a leading online retailer of home electronics products. Komplett customers could choose standard delivery or MyQuickBox delivery for their purchases.

Tobias Åbonde, CEO of Box Sweden, believes MyQuickBox is an appealing service because it offers consumers flexibility as well as faster delivery times. People who feel uncomfor-

Box is a leading provider of express and logistics services in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

Recently the company began rolling out a new service called MyQuickBox, which gives online retailers a way

to offer shoppers more flexibility and security.

table using a credit card for online purchases can choose to pay at the MyQuickBox station instead.

In Norway the new service is available in seven cities. In Sweden it is being launched in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. If suc-cessful, the service will be expanded. Box currently operates exclusively in the Nordic and Baltic region but that might change in the future. “We have the option and the vision to be a European company,” Mr Åbonde says. One of the advantages of the .eu domain is that it sets no limits geographically.

Like MyQuickBox, a .eu web address offers companies flexibility, according to Mr Åbonde. Box used to be called Box Delivery. The com-pany changed its name about a year ago after it was able to obtain box.eu for its corporate website.

Using a .eu domain for the primary corpo-rate website has worked well for Box. “Now everyone in the company has the same email address,” he notes. “It is much easier when you have the same email address for a person

regardless of which country he is working in. The company can also use the same web address for its letterhead. It’s more efficient. I think we’re saving money by having the same address for every office.”

When it comes to the logistics industry, espe-cially, using .eu makes sense, says Mr Åbonde. “The borders are being erased in logistics,” he notes. “We don’t talk about local markets. A lot of logistics companies have ambitions to be bigger. When you have that ambition, you are looking at a strategy to appeal to a large market.”

That makes .eu a natural choice for logistics companies, he says, and for companies that operate in more than one country. “It makes sense to use .eu.”

Using .eu makes sense, according to Tobias Åbonde, CEO of Box Sweden. “The borders are being erased in logistics,” he notes. “A lot of logistics companies have ambitions to be bigger. When you have that ambition, you are looking at a strategy to appeal to a large market.”

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Photos: Pia Johansson

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Eureka! How .eu can teach you a thing or twoWhat do a university in Estonia, an online higher education directory run by a German software company and a

graduate school in Spain have in common? From various corners of the European Union, they are all involved

in higher education and they are all using the .eu domain to attract an international clientele.

Barcelona Graduate School of Economics, Barcelona, SpainSituated in a lush area of central Barcelona, close to the seafront, is one of the campuses of Barcelona´s Graduate School of Economics. The English-speaking graduate school, with students from more than 40 countries around the world, has been in operation since 2006. More than 90 percent of the students at Barce-lona Graduate School of Economics are from outside of Spain.

Clara Kirchner, director of international and corporate relations at Barcelona Graduate School of Economics, says that the brand name is still very new, but the choice of .eu for their website was a well-thought-over one.

“We came to the conclusion that .eu was the domain that best serves the Barcelona GSE´s mission to become a leading innovative insti-tution in a globally competitive environment. We started with .com and .net but they are, of course, very impersonal in this sense. We wan-ted to put more focus on being European. With .eu, any kind of company in any sector fits in.”

She speaks of the growing internationalisa-tion in the education field, with more and more students studying abroad and more streamlined rules and regulations in the higher education field throughout Europe, through the ‘Bologna

Process’ (see fact box). “It is good to have so-mething that shows that we are involved in this. Having .eu on your website is an advantage when it comes to being part of this process,” she says.

moveonnet, Stuttgart, GermanyEURid caught up with German-based moveon-net at one of their workshops held in what is sometimes called the Capital of Europe, Brus-sels. This time the workshop was organised in the Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel (HUB). The portal moveonnet is a recently launched worldwide directory of higher education on the Internet. This day, representatives from more than 12 higher education institutions met to discuss new features in the directory and how they should be improved and implemented.

“The .eu domain is a good way to distinguish the European type of education from other types of education from other areas of the world,” says Karen Buhr, the moveonnet coordinator.

The moveonnet platform was born in 2006. This Internet portal simplifies the sharing of

information about exchange activities between universities´ international relations offices and is also a comprehensive source of information for international students in higher education. The portal began with only German and French users who were mainly using a software pro-gram called moveon from the software provider unisolution for the management of international offices in various institutions. As it grew, move-onnet opened to other institutions of higher education in the world and now they have over 5000 institutions in the directory and more than 1000 have their own moveonnet account.

At first, moveonnet only used the German national .de domain, but the change to the .eu domain came naturally, Ms Buhr explains. “We realised that international office workers and international students wouldn’t search for a German website. If they were looking for infor-mation, the website had to have an international address.”

With the portal, moveonnet not only wants to demonstrate a difference from other styles of higher education, such as those of the North American and Asian markets and attract stu-dents from these areas, but also encourage the exchange of European students within Europe. This helps European institutions achieve the goals set by the Bologna Process.

“We have a particular reputation here in Europe for higher education and in order to enable institutions to promote European higher

“We started with .com and .net but they are, of course, very

impersonal in this sense. We wanted to put more focus on

being European. With .eu, any kind of company in any

sector fits in.” Clara Kirchner, Barcelona GSE, Spain

The brand name Barcelona GSE is still very new, but the choice of .eu for the website was a well-thought-over one, says Clara Kirchner.

“Higher education in Europe has got a good reputation in

the world and therefore it is good to have a .eu domain name

which reflects this.” Karen Buhr, moveonnet, Germany

Photos: Josephine Wood

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The Bologna ProcessThe Bologna Process is an initiative uniting 46 countries. The European Commission is also involved and supports the initiative. Its overarching aim is to create a European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The EHEA should be based on international cooperation and academic exchange that is attractive to European students and staff as well as to students and staff from other parts of the world.

The Bologna Declaration was signed in Bologna in June 1999 and has put in motion a series of reforms needed to make European higher edu-cation more compatible and comparable, more competitive and more attractive to Europeans and to students and scholars from other continents. The Bologna Process aims to create a EHEA by 2010, in which students can choose from a wide and transparent range of high-quality courses and benefit from smooth recognition procedures.

The three priorities of the Bologna Process are: • Introduction of the three-cycle system (bachelor/master/doctorate)• Quality assurance • Recognition of qualifications and periods of study.

Source: European Commission website and official Bologna Secretariat website

“The .eu domain is associated with the European Union, and Estonia is part of the European Union countries. It is important for us to express that we are offering

education that is comparable to other educational institutions in Europe.” Karin Lass, International University Audentes, Estonia

education to students via moveonnet, the .eu domain was the best choice. Higher education in Europe has got a good reputation in the world and therefore it is good to have a .eu do-main name, which reflects this,” Ms Buhr says.

International University Audentes, Tallinn, EstoniaIn the eastern part of Northern Europe, in the Estonian capital of Tallinn, we pay a visit to the International University Audentes. Audentes

Karen Buhr, moveonnet coordinator, says that higher education in Europe has a good reputation and that having a .eu domain name for the portal is useful.

The administration of the International University Audentes in Estonia wanted to emphasise its status as a European insti-tution and chose a .eu address.

is an educational group with altogether 3500 students from around 30 different countries. Audentes includes preschool, private school from 1st to 12th grade and the International University Audentes, where the studies are carried out in three languages – Estonian, Russian and English. Besides that, they also have a sports club and sports school for 16- to 18-year-olds.

Karin Lass, head of communication for the Audentes Group, says that when the university started in 1995, the Estonian top-level domain .ee was used for everything but the English studies. The university came to the conclusion that if they wanted to raise the number of inter-national students, international professors and international programs they needed to have a more international website.

“When we started we had two separate web-sites, for separate languages and programmes. In 2006 we merged the Estonian-Russian and the English units under one name, International University Audentes. Therefore we needed one website for the whole university so we decided that we would take the .eu domain and have one website in three languages.”

Ms Lass says that, as a relatively new country to the European Union, the .eu domain tells people and clients outside of Europe that the company is located in the European Union. This is especially important for smaller countries such as Estonia, she argues.

“The .eu is like a trademark, and it tells people that this company has some sort of quality level,” she notes. “The .eu domain is associated with the European Union and Estonia is part of the European Union countries.

It is important for us to express that we are offering education that is comparable to other educa-tional institutions in Europe.”

Karin Lass, head of communication at the Estonian university, says that now they have one website in three languages.

“Our company is European. I consider myself a European. I belong to a group now rather than simply to a single nation, and our company operates within the

European Union. Therefore it follows that we should have a European domain.”

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“Dynamic Works is one of the top web-solution providers in Europe and Etherial is one of our clients. The entire team at Dynamic Works always recommends .eu domains to our clients and that was the case with Etherial.eu. Whilst having offices in different

locations in Europe, we find that sticking to the .eu domain means that we’re keeping true to the integrity of Europe and all that it stands for.”

Angelos Gregoriou, managing director of Dynamic Works, which designed the etherial.eu website

Cyprus-based jewellery company finds its place in the sun with .eu

At the crossroads of three continents, where East meets West, lies the island of Cyprus, a member of the European Union since May 2004. The 27-year old Cyprus-born entrepreneur

Marcus Platrides recently opened the flagship store for his own rock jewellery and accessory brand, Etherial, in the island´s sun-drenched capital of Nicosia.

For a company based closer to the Middle East than to mainland Europe, the .eu domain offered a way to show the company´s geographical identity.

ith two master degrees to his name, former model Marcus Platrides has proven that he is more than just a pretty face. The young entrepreneur

has built up a successful accessory brand which is now expanding in Europe and farther afield. The Etherial rock jewellery range features rings, bracelets, necklaces, bags, shoes and other accessories made of precious metals, precious and semi-precious stones and other quality materials. The brand Etherial began as an idea in 2005 and has now grown to a considerable size, with resellers in the US and all over Europe.

Given Mr Platrides’ international life and ca-reer, with a lot of travelling around the world, it is not surprising that he considers himself to be European in addition to being a Cypriot. While basking in the sun on the patio of a traditional tavern, Mr Platrides tells us why he chose .eu for the company´s website. “Our company is European. I consider myself

a European. I belong to a group now rather than simply to a single nation, and our company ope-rates within the European Union. Therefore it fol-lows that we should have a European domain.”

Mr Platrides goes on to say that even when the company expands to Asia and Australia, it will still use the .eu domain because “I want everybody to know where our origins are. We are proud of being a European company.”

He adds: “The European Union reflects high standards, and it is very important for us that people understand that we also reflect high standards in our work and our capacity to fulfil people´s custom-made orders.”

For Mr Platrides, choosing .eu for his com-pany website was vital. He consulted a registrar about the etherial.eu name even before the .eu top-level domain was launched. For this entre-preneur, there is an exclusivity attached to a .eu domain name. “With a European domain we have the

Wbenefit of belonging to an exclusive European web-based family,” he says. Now that Cyprus is part of the European Union, Mr Platrides says his company is pleased to be part of the ever- growing European family of companies and private organisations that use the single domain that stands for Europe: .eu.

Dynamic Works always recommends .eu to clients

Photos: Josephine Wood

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ost of us take that ability for granted but it didn’t exist 25 years ago. Then, as now, each computer connected to the Internet was identified by a

unique Internet Protocol, or IP, address. The IP address for the eurid.eu website, for example, is 195.234.53.199. This type of number is a perfectly lovely way for one computer to talk to another. You can see how well it works by ente-ring the EURid IP address into a web browser: Your computer will take you promptly to the EURid website.

IP addresses aren’t nearly as easy for most humans to remember, however. Luckily, we were rescued from trying to remember long strings of IP addresses by the two men credited with the development of the DNS.

At first the domain name system consisted of a single file, called ”hosts.txt”, maintained by Internet pioneer Jon Postel. Then, in November 1983, Paul Mockapetris built on Postel’s work by proposing the adoption of “domain style names” and a database, or look-up system, spread across many specialised computers called domain name servers or root servers. This system, which was adopted in 1984, al-lows computers to find the correct IP address associated with a specific domain name, or Internet address, and make the Internet easy to navigate for humans as well as machines.

How it works: The DNS database is struc-tured as a hierarchy with several levels. Every

domain name consists of a series of characters, called labels, which are separated by dots. The right-most label (the .eu in www.eurid.eu) is called the top-level domain. There are different types of top-level domains, or TLDs. TLDs that are related to a geographical area are known as country-code or ccTLDs, while .com and .net, for example, are known as generic or gTLDs. Each top-level domain has many second-level domains (the eurid in www.eurid.eu). Second-level domains can include third-level domains (the www part) as well.

But you don’t really need to worry about all the levels of the DNS because the system does it for you. When you enter www.eurid.eu into a web browser, your computer finds the cor-rect web page automatically. First the system looks for the root server for the .eu domain as a whole and then it checks the .eu zone, for the correct IP address for www.eurid.eu.

The system works as long as every domain name is unique, which is one of the many du-ties of the organisations that maintain domain registries. EURid, for example, is responsible for the integrity of the .eu database. Luckily, the DNS works very well. So well, in fact, that most Internet users have never even heard of it, which demonstrates just how smoothly and successfully the system has operated all these years.

Celebrating 25 years of domain namesThis year the Internet domain name system (DNS) turns 25, which should be a cause for celebration. Thanks to pioneers such as Jon Postel, above, the DNS provides the technical wizardry that lets you get to a website by typing an Internet address, such as www.eurid.eu, into a web browser on your computer.

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Notable moments in domain name historyNovember 1983Paul Mockapetris proposes a domain name system.

October 1984Jon Postel and a colleague issue a policy statement on the requirements of establish-ing a new domain. Specifications for the first generic top-level domains are published and .com, .edu, .gov, .mil, .net and .org become available the following year.

February 1985.us for United States becomes the first country-code TLD, followed by .uk for the United Kingdom (in July) and .il for Israel (in October).

April 1985Symbolics.com reportedly becomes the first registered .com domain name.

1995 - 2000The availability of desirable domain names decline as the Internet grows in popularity. Are more domains needed? The issue is debated.

November 2000The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approves seven new domains: aero, .biz, .coop, .info, .museum, .name and .pro, which become available between 2001 and 2004.

May 2005The .eu domain is officially added to the root zone.

2005-2006Many new TLDs are approved over this two-year period: .cat, .jobs, .mobi, .tel, .travel and .asia.

April 2006.eu domain names become available to individuals, businesses and organisations within the European Union.

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“We are a Czech company using the .eu do-main for our business in Poland, where we run a portal serving foreigners coming or staying in Warsaw for business. Being a portal, the deci-sion about our Internet address and domain was, in fact, an important part of our branding. We went for the .eu domain as it basically re-lates to the part of the world we do business in, and it has proved to be a good choice indeed.”

Kamil Virag, marketing manager, GOwarsaw, The Czech Republic

Gained international exhibitors “because of .eu”

BDOBC Business Center is a branding and events company which organises an inter-national real estate fair. The fair uses the .eu extension. “The best real estate event in the Romanian market needs a European extension, and we try to offer it. Now, the biggest event of real estate business and retail in South East Europe has interna- tional exhibitors be- cause of .eu.”

Ana Nedea, PR manager, BDOBC Business Center, Romania

Choose domain names wisely

We have chosen .eu for our businesses because:

There are about 200 top-level domains altogether. One or more of them might be useful in protecting and marketing your brand online. But which one or ones? An increasing number of company managers are develop-ing formal domain name strategies as a way to answer that question and register the domain names that matter most to their success. They are also keeping a close eye on developments with domains, since new ones are introduced over time.

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.eu “is an important element in our marketing communication strategy for foreign markets”

“Young Digital Planet has been operating in the software industry since 1990 as a producer and publisher of interactive educational programs and e-learning technology. The moment the introduction of .eu was announced, we knew that we wanted a corporate .eu address. The .eu domain is an important element in our marketing communication strategy for foreign markets. Young Digital Planet co-operates with companies from all over the world, and we want to be identified as a European company.”

Tomasz Bołcun, marketing communication specialist, Young Digital Planet, Poland

.eu “has proved to be a good choice indeed”

Photo: GOwarsaw

Photo: Young Digital Planet

Photo: BDOBC Business Center

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The .eu domain, for example, is still relatively new but has been embraced by the marketing executives of many companies operating in Europe.

A .eu domain name “made our lives easier”, notes Daniela Faust-Rogausch, the manager of corporate communications for Kyocera Finecer-amics GmbH, which uses the kyocera.eu address. “Europe consists of so many indepen-dent countries with different languages. The .eu address has harmonised all this information on one single platform.”

Jadwiga Ford is the marketing director for Eurozet Sp. z o.o., a media company in Poland that uses the radiozet.eu address for Radio ZET, a national radio station with more than 7 million listeners daily. “The use of a .eu suffix is an opportunity for Radio ZET to acquire a pan-European online presence,” says Mr Ford. “It serves as a symbol for us being up and running in the digital world.”

Leen Bakker B.V. has branches in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Luxemburg, so a .eu website was the ideal way for the furni-ture company to create unity in external, cross-border communication, says Letteke Bens-van den Berg, who represents the company on communication issues.

“All of our trucks are provided with the leenbakker.eu address; they have one uniform look wherever they’re driving in Europe,” she says. “We’re an ambitious company looking for a stronger presence in Europe, thanks to our .eu website.”

Whatever domain name you choose, it pays to choose it wisely and treat it well. Domain names make up a critical business asset. You cannot afford to lose the use of a website address because domain renewals were ignor-ed or forgotten. Marriott Hotel Holding GmbH has centralised domain name management to make sure it is handled properly.

“We have a central domain registration department and also a function that deals with

trademark infringements using our trademarks in URLs,” notes Frank Zehle, Marriott’s vice president of brand marketing for Continental Europe. You don’t have to be as large as Marriott to benefit from a thoughtful domain name strategy. Even small companies and entrepreneurs should pay attention to the advice domain spe-cialists offer most often. Here are the top five tips from experts:

Think long-term. Domain names are an investment in your future. Choose one or more that support future growth and help you market and sell your company’s products or services.

Give one person or department responsibility for all your domain name registrations.

If you offer more than one service or product, register domain names for each one to make it easier for custom-ers to find you.

Register the domain name or names for a new product, service or company before announcing them publicly. Otherwise you may lose them to someone else.

Does your company have strong competition or vocal critics? Some consultants recommend registering potentially competitive or critical domain names to prevent others from using them.

Attila Tihanyi, Magyar Telekom, Hungary

How long have you been in the Internet business and what attracted you to it?I have been working in this business since 2004. I was attracted by the incredibly fast growth of this market and the interesting marketing possibilities. The commercial deployment of new technologies means a continuous challenge for all marketing experts.

What are your clients’ main arguments for choosing a .eu name?For big European companies, who want to be present on the Internet in a European style, owning a .eu domain name is a must. Nowadays, they can hardly afford not to register one. For smaller companies, the registra-tion of a .eu domain name is necessary if entering the European market.

If you got to look into the crystal ball of .eu’s future, what would you see?I see .eu as a flag ship of companies‘ domain name portfolios, as a natural first choice for European-based companies, who want a domain name extension with good reputa-tion keeping it together with their respective ccTLDs. Thus, the most important task is to increase .eu awareness among all European companies.

Sarina Lehto and Johanna Romula, Berggren Oy Ab, Finland

How long have you been in the Internet business?Sarina: For 10 years. I studied Internet marketing at university, it included designing web pages for companies, etc. Now I’m responsible for the domain name registrations.

Johanna: For three years. I have been working for Berggren for seven years, and three years ago I started with domain names. Sarina has taught me a lot about domain names. I find this business very interesting as there is always something new happening.

What are you clients’ main arguments for choosing a .eu name?Sarina and Johanna: Our cus- tomers who are trademark holders have to protect their trade names and that is by far their main argument. That is why we also differ from some other registrars. Some clients own global brands and act globally and some of them have big portfolios so this is a very important issue for them.

There are more than 1000 accredited .eu registrars, who can register your .eu name with EURid. Here we talk to a few of them.

If you got to look into the crystal ball of .eu’s future, what would you see?Sarina and Johanna: We believe that .eu websites will increase. In Finland people have perhaps wanted to “wait and see” what is going to happen with .eu. But now we’ve seen that .eu has grown, .eu is reliable and the system for registration is very good. This is also what we say to our customers.

This spring, EURid staff has been busy presenting .eu to the public at several events around Europe. We promoted .eu by talking to people about the advantages of having a .eu website and handed out info material and our highly appreciated .eu chocolates.

One of the big events we attended was the European Business Sum-mit, held in Brussels at the end of February, with around 1800 people attending from various business areas and speakers including José Manuel Barrosso, the president of the European Commission. Many people who had not yet heard of .eu now realise that there is a single domain for the whole European Union.

In Copenhagen, EURid staff were present at the Internet Expo in February, a fair that was open to the public and was well attended by people from the region.

Also in the beginning of February, an event by the European Enter-

prise Network was held in Brussels. This is an EU initiative to enable and inspire small- and medium-sized European companies to make use of the full potential of the common mar-ket. In March, at Innovact in Reims, France, EURid met young, innovative businesspeople who were about to create new companies and people who recently had created companies and who had started thinking about their web presence.

We are planning to be present at similar events in Europe this coming year – and we look forward to meeting you there!

Did YOU meet us at an event earlier this year?

Spotlight on .eu registrars

Igor Strecko and Juraj Gress, WebGlobe, Slovakia

How long have you been in the Internet business and what attracted you to it? Igor: Our company was founded in 1998 and at that time Internet presentation was more developed abroad. In Slovakia at that time, the companies just found out this inexpensive and effective presentation. We were among the first ones to offer domain name registration and web hosting services in Slovakia, and we immediately faced huge interest in our services.

Juraj: I jumped into running the business in 2002, attracted by new tech-nologies and the interesting field of business.

What are you clients’ main arguments for choosing a .eu name?Igor: I could see a clear shift in clients’ reasons for choosing a .eu domain name. At the very beginning, they were mainly interested in securing their brands or registered trademarks. Later on, the number of cases increased when the domain names they wanted were already taken under ccTLDs. Nowadays, I can observe that our clients go for .eu as their first choice because it has got a better sound than e.g. a .com. They want to present themselves as a .eu company, as a European subject. Thus, .eu evolved into an image they want to communicate.

Juraj: I fully agree with my col-league. After the Sunrise period’s protection of trademarks and com-pany names, they want to show themselves as EU players.

If you got to look into the crystal ball of .eu’s future, what would you see?Igor: I believe that the .eu deve-lopment will copy that of the whole EU. This means the stronger the EU identity, the stronger the .eu usage. Slovakia was a new EU member state when .eu started, and people’s awareness of EU citizenship is increasing.

Juraj: I see its growing economic importance. There is a huge growth potential – at least the total number shall catch ccTLDs.

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